Holly Moore

Let me add on a message to all you great restaurant bakers out there. Type II diabetes is catching on. More and more restaurant-goers are diabetics looking for allowable desserts. You'd think some clever bakers would catch on and offer one or two diabetic-safe desserts - all the drama and glamor of their regular offerings, but no sugar and ideally no white flour. Or, your restaurants can't keep on losing desert sales to those who are natural dessert eaters but have had to give them up. And you're probably not just losing those desert sales. It's my experience that fellow diners, out of empathy for the diabetics amongst them, also pass on desert.

Got a flyer through my mail slot yesterday for a new restaurant, the Balkan Express. It's on Gray's Ferry, just south of 23rd and Kater. It shares a building with a hardware store. In fact the hardware store owner, from the Balkans by way of a restaurant and inn he ran in Germany, opened the Balkan Express. The place opened a couple of weeks ago, but the flyer is the first advertising beyond word of mouth. Right now they're just serving breakfast and lunch - dinner is starting up in a week or two. I stopped in for breakfast this morning and met the owner. He comes across as someone who loves food, is proud of the cuisine of the Balkans, and is a bit leery of whether the neighborhood is ready for Balkan cuisine. The good news - he makes and smokes his own Balkan sausage. I had it as part of the "Balkan Special" breakfast. It is very good sausage. He told me he had looked all over Philadelphia for the right sausage, couldn't find it, so he's serving the same sausage he has been making all along for his family. It's a coarse sausage with a garlicky smoke to it. The bad news - that is all there was Balkan about the "Balkan Special" breakfast. The rest - extremely well cooked, they've got a great breakfast chef - eggs, "Balkan fries" aka home fries, a pancake, a slice of bacon and half a slice of ham. And that's the way the menu is. More American than Balkan. For lunch there's Balkan sausage with peppers, but also a Balkan Hamburger which is just a hamburger though they grind their own beef daily, and a Balkan Hoagie. The breakfast menu includes a Balkan Omelette with smoked ham, pepper and onions and, as a choice of sides, "Balkan Potatos", grits or kasha. There's Serbian sausage alone with the Balkan sausage. He will be doing Balkan daily specials - today a baked or fried fish, tomorrow meatless or with meat mousaka. He also described a Balkan version of Cordon Bleu, with his own smoked ham. Trouble is he can't find the same soft cheese (a blend of cow and sheep cheese similar to feta) that his version calls for. Yesterday the special was goulash - he told me there are more versions of goulash than there are days in a year. I'm thinking this is a restaurant with tremendous potential that is getting off to a great start. But right now it's more of a neighborhood restaurant than one representing Balkan cuisine. He needs people to stop by and assure him that Philadelphia is ready for un-Americanized Balkan cooking.

Fair enough, though I maintain Ray Kroc is the founder of McDonald's as in McDonald's Corporation. He had the vision. And the first McDonald's corporate restaurant was in Des Plaines. But you are right that the first McDonald's restaurant was opened by the McDoanld's brothers. It always irked Ray that his name wasn't on the sign. For a brief period we developed a new concept, Raymond's. Thicker patties, fancier decor, higher prices. Number one opened on Oak Street in Chicago. Number two on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. I don't recall a number three.

Sorry to disagree with you, but what you'd actually have is a restaurant that a) charged at least 10 bucks for a hamburger or b) was losing money hand over fist. The cost of running a restaurant and the amount of competition around aren't close to what they were like in the 60s. There are plenty of options for better quality hamburgers and fries, with better service and cleaner dining rooms, but people simply don't want to pay that much for a fast food hamburger. I see restaurants such as the one you described go out of business every day in my city. McDonald's is exactly the way it is because that's what the public dictates. They want a $1 McValue menu, and they are willing to sacrifice good service, cleanliness and even health codes to get it. ← Agree the cost of running a restaurant has changed with inflation - but not so that 15 cent hamburgers would have to go for $10 - a 6,000 plus percent increase. Food costs may have gone up 300-400 percent over that time span. Labor costs somewhere around 800 percent. Not all that different from the rise in menu prices. The four conditions affecting McDonald's deterioration as I see it are: 1. Management focus. When I worked for McDonalds it was an operationally based company. Operations called the shots and the top management (president and regional vice presidents) all came up through the ranks. Over my time there, McDonald's was evolving to a marketing driven company. Now I believe it is a cost/ROI driven company. All are interrelated, but operations no longer calls the shots as they once did. Operations stressed QSC - Quality, Service and Cleanliness. Yes, there were target controllable costs (food and labor), but the need to meet them was not an excuse to waiver from QSC. Both had to happen, or else. And that "or else" could be and sometimes was Ray Kroc walking into a store and firing the manager on the spot. 2. Cannibalization - McDonald's was its own strongest competitor. As the McDonald's chain grew the size of each restaurant's trading area shrunk. Where at one time there might have been 10 miles separating McDonald's restaurants, later there were 5 miles and now often less. Same number of hamburger eaters out there, so less potential hamburger eaters per restaurant. Hence new products. Broaden the menu to offer a variety that would appeal to more people in the market and would bring regular customers back more often. The McDonald's menu of today compared to the McDonald's menu of the '60's is akin to a Ford plant, on a single assembly line of Henry Ford's era, now turning out the entire Ford family of cars. Mass confusion. The only way McDonald's could deal with the increased complexity has been to pre-cook and increase holding times. The result - mediocracy where once they excelled. 3. The labor force and the resultant work ethic. The fast food labor force has changed. High schoolers are no longer the vast labor pool they used to be. Where once McDonald's managers could pick and choose from a waiting list of eager workers, now they are forced to pretty much hire whomever walks through the door. This is an overstatement, but it's rare to find the cheerful exuberance and team spirit that once existed behind McDonald's counters. 4. Competition. But there was a time when McDonald's kicked ass because of the quality of their operations. I remember fast food rows in places like Columbus Ohio and Tucson AZ packed with a few dozen franchise fast food restaurants. McDonald's still dominated. McDonald's has made the competition stronger than it might have become by cutting its commitment to QSC and by expanding its menu to be everything to everybody. As I've said before here, I'm still not convinced that the Wheel of Retailing doesn't hold true for McDonald's. That someone could open of a 1960's style McDonald's today, and find the market that McDonald's and all the others have lost.

As I recall 1960s McDonalds did not have tables. ← I did my time at McDonald's in the late 60's and as I recall it was a mixed bag - the newer McD's were being built with dining rooms and a lot of the older ones, especially those in cooler climates, were renovating and adding them on. I also believe this is the time period when McDonald's evolved from the red and white tile buildings to the mansard roof look of today.

Popeye Fried Chicken skin between slices of supermarket white bread.

Pull back your constraints to let one of them them run a McDonald's that meets founder Ray Kroc's 1960's standards: 1. The restaurant sparkles, shines. 2. Only fresh raw product = fresh cut, twice fried french fries, fresh beef patties ground early in the morning and delivered fresh each day, daily made tartar sauce. No freezer. No microwave. 3. Only fresh finished product - burgers and fries are trashed after 10 minutes holding. Timers in each section of the bin to make sure it happens. During rush hours burgers are never more than a minute or two off the grill. 4. Two additional employees - the porter who spends his time keeping the parking lot and inside spotless. The bus person who clears and cleans everyone's table as soon as they leave. 5. A youth workforce that wants/needs to work, that competes for jobs, where there is a waiting list and some franchisees only hire straight A students. Then put in a manager who started off at a buck an hour peeling potatoes, who will motivate, build morale and enthusiasm, who will lead by stepping in wherever needed and is able take over the grill from the justifiably cocky crew cheif and, using two spatulas, one in each hand, flip the burgers six at a time, laying down "12's" and "24's" in rows of 6 on an eight foot grill full of patties and buns in precise alignment and all cooked perfectly. You'll end up with a fast food restaurant that in its way is as well run and as committed to service and quality as any five star french restaurant. And you'll end up with a fast food restaurant with lines out the door and around the building just like it used to be back in the '60s. Do that and you don't need a Bourdain or a Ripert to run the place. But you'll have a fast food restaurant that Bourdain or Ripert or any of the others will respect and on some days maybe even envy. The majority of the McDonald's of today are a discrace. If the first McDonald's restaurant operated with the sloppy standards of today's McDonald's, the company never would have made it out of Des Plaines IL - Ray Kroc's first McDonald's. But back then most McDonald's restaurants ran with the beauty and precision of a finely tuned swiss clock. It was a thrill to stand behind the scenes in an out-of-the-way corner and watch a high volume McDonald's turn out its equivelent of pitching a "no-hitter" - back-to-back thousand dollar hours at a time when burgers were going for fifteen cents each.

It's mentioned in one of the linked threads above - I had a great game meal at the Hotel Diana - It's at the end of the metro line and then about a quarter of a mile hike. Nothing high style, but an excellent kitchen. Also mentioned in that thread, and akin to the pub culture you will be seeking is U Kalicha. Basic slavic fare, lots of beer and a wandering tuba and acordian duo. I mention it because, though I started dining alone, I soon was welcomed into a tablefull of Australians who took great sport in seeing how drunk they could make the lone American.

I think there's a state law that folks breakfasts must be served with grits. If not there should be. It is great news that the Coffee Cup is still going strong. It went through an ownership change or two and, I believe some downtime, so I was worried it might had suffered some during the transition. The Coffee Cup isn't just for breakfast, by the way. Some excellent fried chicken and other southern staples.

Not to worry re the flash. I asked permission of the hostess and she said fine. Probably best to ask first, but I suspect it won't be an issue when you return.

Thanks all, Katie's shilling worked again. We settled on Rouge.

Thanks Katie, My read on Rogue is that it's fun, great food, but not all that condusive to business talk, especially when the place is a-poppin' on a Saturday afternoon. If I'm wrong, let me know and we'll set something up.

I'm drawing/shooting blanks on this. Got a British TV type coming in for a business lunch meeting this Saturday - total of three people. As I'm usually wolfing down hot dogs and cheesesteaks on Saturday's or am too filled up after breakfast at Carman's, I'm having a hard time finding a place open for Saturday Lunch. I figured one of the steak houses but they all seem to be closed. One possibility is Jack's Firehouse, but she's staying in Center City, so I'm hoping for something thereabouts. Decent food, good sized table, preferably not one of the hotel dining rooms. So who serves a respectable Saturday Lunch?

Valid suggestion and I could have. But I'm still wondering why all these these places take such great pride in their biscuits and their breakfasts and then serve them with non-butter. Portion control butter is available, so it's got to be either to save money or that's what people have come to prefer.

Did try a Huey Burger. A very good burger but spoiled by a pedestrian sesame seed bun . Too much bun for the meat, too, in my opinion. I got a single cheeseburger from Dyer's and didn't care for it all that much. Then I got the double double. It was a great burger.

Over the past couple of months I've put down maybe 20 southern breakfasts and a similar number of southern lunches and dinners - alas none in South Louisiana. Of them, the only place I remeber for sure that served butter was Mama Dip's in Chapel Hill NC. This has been an ongoing frustration for a number of years, not just my recent trip to Oxford and Memphis.

Dyer's Hamburgers in Memphis fries up hamburgers and hot dogs using grease that dates back to 1912 - almost a hundred years. The grease is strained nightly, and added to as necessary, but somewhere within it is the spirit of the first burger every fried by Doc Dryer. Dryer's has changed locations a few times; it's now located on Beale Street. Each move there has been an armed police escort to protect the grease in transit. The burgers are smashed paper thin, fried in the oil, and served on a basic hamburger bun with mustard, onion and, if a cheeseburger, American cheese. Below a Double Double from Dryer's:

So what's up with Southern fare restaurants and butter. Real butter? Above, a couple of places, the Arcade in Memphis and the Log Cabin in Hurricane Falls TN that I hit during a recent trip. But I find it all through the south. Restaurants famous for their breakfast, restaurants that take the trouble to bake fresh biscuits, corn bread and rolls, almost always serve them up with Country Crock or buttery Land-O-Lakes spread. It can't be a cholestrol thing - what with the thick slabs of country ham, the milk gravy and the eggs that make up a full Southern breakfast. I hate to think it's penny pinching, though southern prices are a tremendous value compared to Philadelphia. Has the use of butter substitutes become a cultural change, where locals prefer them over real butter?

Marty Lowe evidently went to school on Ted Drewe's and, from what I tasted at the RTM, has created an equal or better product. Though he calls it ice cream to avoid confusion for the mediocre "frozen custard" currently available hereabouts, it is a true frozen custard, compete with the addition of eggs to the mix. He has a retail store, Zwahlens, located at 670 Shannondell Blvd in Audubon PZ. They also do a great caramel apple - 72 count (giant) granny smith apples dipped in caramel and white chocolate, best served when sliced like a pie. The Reading Terminal Saturday Morning Breakfast Club (meets twice a month) is a neat, small informal group. Lots of good questions. Edited to correct web site address

It was Gino's that brought me to Philadelphia in 1977. I was account supervisor for their new ad agency. Then Gino's closed down and sold out to Marriott/Roy Rogers. I decline to comment as to cause and effect. But back in my McDonald's days in the late 60's Gino's was feared by McDonald's. Philadelphia and Baltimore were the last East Coast markets, outside of New York, for McD's to develop. Why? Because Gino's kicked their ass. They had a million dollar location way before McDonald's. And their stores averaged a far higher volume than the average McDonald's. Then management got greedy. They diverted their efforts into Rustler Steakhouses and a couple of other ventures. They didn't put the necessary bucks into Gino's advertising and upkeep. During the early 70's McDonald's saw the opening and took over both markets.

I view Southern and Creole/Cajun as two distinct cuisines. Though Gullah in the low country strikes me as Southern despite its similarity to Creole.

Deliberately provacative, indeed, agrees Holly Moore, himself.

Thanks for the heads-up. Guess I know where I'll be Saturday morning. Does Marty Low have a retail operation in Audubon or does he just sell wholesale?

Carman's Country Kitchen is as unique a restaurant as one will ever come across. And Carman's does indeed have its quirks. Not everyone clicks with Carman's. It is a natural selection process. Carman's, pushed to the gills, seats maybe 20; 26 in good weather, counting her pick-up truck / outdoor dining area. There is already a line of regulars out the door during prime weekend hours. If everyone "got" Carman's, I'd never be able to get a seat and that would be bad. For those that don't click with Carman's - the Morning Glory is indeed a fine, dependable, predictable choice. They do a very good lunch. A few facts lest others go there with similar expectations. Carman's doesn't serve lunch. Just brunch. Carman's always has but four choices - an omelette, french toast, pancake/waffle, and a "none-of-the-above" - usually a fish, poultry or meat entree. But wonderfully creative omelettes, french toast, pancakes and entrees. Surprising combinations that come together deliciously. If perch is on the menu it is not any ol' perch, but perch from a lake in Canada famous for it's perch. The sausages - just a dollar extra - Sonny D'Angelo's finest. The fruits and vegetables are from Anastasia, some of which I've never before encountered. There is french toast worth every bit of $4.95 and there is french toast that is a great value at $12. As for Carman being a "wee bit kooky," I think not. I have never known Carman to be a "wee bit" anything. When kookie is called for, Carman is as kick-ass kookie as they come.

The Full English Breakfast - AKA the 10 Deadly Sins - as served at Simpsons-In-The-Strand. Note the Heinz-like beans. Also appearing in supporting roles: Cumberland sausage, fried egg, streaky and back bacon, black pudding, lamb's kidneys, fried bread, grilled tomato, bubble and squeak, and grilled mushrooms. I assume the single egg is to limit cholesterol.